Head volleyball coach Eric Schafer hit a milestone that only three other coaches have hit at Cabrini. Coach Schafer hit the 300 wins milestone back on Oct 6th with a 3-0 sweep of the Gwynedd-Mercy Griffins.
Schafer, who is in his 14th season, as the cavalier head coach has seen the program through times of great success including eight straight CSAC titles and NCAA tournament appearances from 2009 to 2017. Schafer started his coaching career with the girl’s varsity volleyball team at Radnor High School for two years before moving programs a couple of times. Eventually, he found his way to Cabrini. Schafer has seen the Cavs through tough seasons including the current. campaign. With a record of 10-17 on the season but the number one seed in the conference tournament with a big win over Marymount on Wednesday night.
Coach Schafer said, “I’ve never looked at the number and you hit the 300 mark and you look back at the first 50 and how that was such a building time in the program.”
Schafer has built this team into what it is today. He took a new team that struggled in the beginning. Then he recalled how it took two or three years to reach 50 wins. Then the program grew into the perennial conference powerhouse it is today.
“All of sudden things started clicking for us and the next 50 was a little easier. The last 100 had been pretty hard,” coach Schafer said. Over the years the Cavaliers have added tougher opponents to their schedule, which added to the challenge of reaching the 300 win mark.
Coach Schafer said, ” It’s just a number, it’s nice. It means I’ve been in the game a long time. I’ve taken every year and tried to learn and grow from it.” Grow he did. Coach
Schafer has gone from coaching varsity high school volleyball to a multi-time coach-of-the-year recipient at the college level.
Learning and growing as a coach are major reasons why Schafer was able to reach this milestone at Cabrini. Many coaches hope to hit the 300 win milestone that coach Schafer has reached but few are around the game long enough to reach it.
“I’ve learned that patience is huge, sometimes I have it sometimes I do not.” coach Schafer said. ” The communication part is the most important part. I think with all our team, early on I would say I did not do a good job communicating.”
Growing his communicational skills along with his patience when things are not going the Cavaliers’ way is a major key to why coach Schafer was able to reach the 300 win milestone and even surpass it this season with a few clutch conference victories.
Schafer has spoken very highly of the support he has received over the years from the athletic department at Cabrini and has attributed much of his success to that support and the belief they have put into him.
